IBM Executive Shuffle Lands Its Ace To Head Sales

departure of Michael Lawrie will have lasting significance on IBM's partner community. I'll cover the easy part first--Lawrie's move to Siebel Systems, where he assumed the CEO role after founder Tom Siebel stepped aside. Siebel has been a strong IBM partner for many years, but is one of a handful of IT players--including SAP and PeopleSoft,that have yet to figure out a strategy for leveraging the solution-provider community. Siebel is probably the last of the direct-sales dinosaurs out there, with Lawrie's arrival likely saving it from extinction. Lawrie is a channel-centric executive. Period. Under his watch as head of sales and distribution, IBM grew its percentage of sales through partners, strengthened its relationship with the overall partner community and brought in Michael Borman, who many say is the best channel leader IBM has ever had.

Now Borman has a new boss in Doug Elix, former head of IBM Global Services (IGS), who, in a chain reaction, fills Lawrie's position. The good news is that Elix needs little in the way of channel education. In a strange twist of fate, VARBusiness sat down with Elix on the eve of his appointment as head of sales and distribution. When we interviewed Elix, he was still officially running IBM Global Services, though he made it clear that not only was he thoroughly engaged with Borman to develop a stronger channel for IGS offerings, but he considers solution providers a growth engine for IBM's services arm.

The interview with Elix was a coup for this magazine because press interviews with him are as rare as a good Paul Hogan movie. In fact, Elix hasn't done many--if any--interviews in person since he took over IGS in 1999, which last year had revenue of $42.6 billion. We had tried to no avail to get a sit-down with Elix for the past two years, but for reasons that became clear on May 3, when the changes were officially announced, he agreed to speak to us at IGS' headquarters in Somers, N.Y., on April 30. We had no idea it would be his last interview as head of IGS. Conversing with Elix about the business of selling IT solutions was fascinating; his insight was extraordinary. In a matter of minutes, he changed my perception of the solution-provider landscape and why solution providers more than ever need to strengthen their services businesses. We pressed him on enterprise spending, why customers should choose IGS instead of Accenture or EDS, and whether IGS would be better off as an independent entity. Elix provided us with great insight, which you can read about in our June 14 VARBusiness 500 issue.

But let me tease you with some highlights: Elix is optimistic about a rebound in enterprise spending. And services-oriented solution providers stand to benefit the most if they can tie their revenue streams to their customers' increased productivity, cost savings or sales gains. He characterized competitors' statements that IGS is biased toward IBM gear as completely false and not based on fact. And he stressed that IGS finally has a good handle on how to engage with solution providers and limit conflict.

Elix is being succeeded by IBM CFO John R. Joyce, who many say could be the next president of IBM. He is now in charge of IBM's largest and highly profitable business unit. Joyce will have a chance to transform himself from a "numbers guy" to a solutions-oriented executive. We'll see how he does at IGS' helm.

So what is the biggest missed opportunity of the year? Well, as June approaches, it must be HP's mishandling of the 20th anniversary of its laser printer. Gee, you didn't realize it has been 20 years? Maybe monopolies don't have to make a fuss, but 20 years ago the company introduced a $3,400 8-page-per-minute LaserJet printer. Today, you can get a 12-ppm LaserJet for $179. Vyomesh Joshi, who runs HP's $23 billion printer operation, jokes that some of those original printers are still in use because of the product's quality. Sounds like the ultimate upgrade challenge. Too bad HP is letting this rare marketing opportunity slip through its fingers.

Thanks to those of you who tuned into VARBusiness' April 29 SMB NetSeminar. If you missed it, please view the archived version on our Web site. Tune in to the next NetSeminar on May 13, in which I will cover the State of the Enterprise. Details are on www.varbusiness.com.

Finally, what do you think of our cover story on outsourcing? Let me know at [email protected].